The Bradford Cousins and the Whiskey Rebellion - Part 3

It is 1794. At the Black Horse Tavern in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, David Bradford, his cousin, William, and others meet to discuss the rebellion. A plot to steal the mail is devised, and it is decided that William and John Mitchell will do the deed.

On July 26, 1794, they intercept the mail near Greensburg, about 20 miles east of Pittsburgh. William and John tie up the carrier and grab the mailbag but only snatch letters that look pertinent to the rebellion. They race away, taking the mail to Benjamin Parkinson, and then to David Bradford. They meet at the Black Horse and the dispatches are opened. They find several letters denouncing their actions. David Bradford is incensed and decides that it is time to take action.

Word reaches the President and within days Washington orders a militia 13,000 strong to to quell the rebellion. However, by the time they arrive, the rebellion has collapsed. Many are arrested, but David Bradford flees to Spanish-held western Florida (present-day Louisiana), living there for the rest of his life, with only one brief visit back to his home in Pennsylvania. Eventually all are pardoned, including William Bradford, and an interesting period in American history comes to a close.

How did the rest of the family feel about all this? In particular, what about William and Rebecca? Did they support the rebellion? Was Rebecca proud of her brother and cousin? Or was she ashamed of the whole affair?

Long ago a descendant, Rev. D. G. Bradford, wrote: "...the historic Black Horse tavern, the scene of many an orgie [sic], the seclusion of many a culprit, and the place of planning 'ways that are dark and tricks that are vain' is to be razed to the foundation. When I last saw it three years ago, it had even a repulsive appearance, as if clad in sackcloth and ashes for what had transpired beneath its then dilapidated covering. Within its wall in Whiskey Insurrection days the intercepted mailed was opened and searched not for sordid gold, but to learn what report it carried to the government at Philadelphia concerning those engaged in the insurrection. William Bradford, a relative of the writer, had procured the pouch near Greensburg and brought it to Canonsburg for inspection. What a tale this old 'Black Horse' could unfold if to its crumbling walls speech were possible.

"[I] boarded for a time in the family of Benjamin Bradford, a son of this same William Bradford, and one of the wealthy and most highly respected citizens of the town. His father, the notorious William Bradford, was a large landowner in Braden County, Ohio, was esteemed quite rich for those times, lived in Kentucky, and loaned his money in Ohio. I occasionally saw him, an old man 'leaning upon the top of his staff.' At that time I had learned but little of the Whiskey Insurrection, knew nothing of the history of the Black Horse tavern, the interception of the mail, and was not aware that I was in the company of one of the men who dared to 'hold up' Uncle Sam's mail coach, carry off the pouch to Canonsburg, and rifle the bag. Had I known these things he would immediately have become an object of greater interest to me than he was...I suppose that William Bradford would have hesitated to make any free utterance as to what he knew of the Black Horse tavern, and his illegal handling of the mail. Away with the old "Black Horse" then to make room for a modern structure which shall never be the haunt of men who neither fear God nor regard men."

The Rev. Bradford's reaction was a mix of fascination and reproach. We will probably never know which William and Rebecca felt, but perhaps there is a clue in this: In my branch of the family (I descend through William and Rebecca's son, Samuel Miller), no word of our ancestors' participation in the Rebellion was ever passed down. It wasn't until my brother, Bill, and I began doing genealogy that this connection was discovered. I have to admit that "distance lends romance," and I tend toward the fascination reaction. I am enthralled with all my ancestors, and realize that they were just like us--their lives were filled with bad and good, failures, triumphs and adventures. And so they become more real to me, and even more beloved.

The Bradford Cousins and the Whiskey Rebellion - Part 2

David Bradford (left), successful attorney, businessman and Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania, became the infamous leader of the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania in 1794. He was also the cousin of our Rebecca Bradford Miller!

David Bradford took lead of the rebellion in 1794 and held a series of strategic planning meetings at his home in Washington County, Pennsylvania (about 50 miles west of where Rebecca and William Miller were living in neighboring Fayette County). A bold, defiant plan took hold among the insurrectionists - they would steal the U.S. mail in order to discover which local leaders opposed the rebels. To them, this was an issue of unfair taxation without representation, not the perpetration of a federal crime. It seemed that the end justified the means.

Two men would actually snatch the mail, and one of them was none other than our Rebecca's brother, William Bradford! What were the circumstances that led to this event? Let's go back in time.

As children, Rebecca, her younger brother William (b. 1770), sister Jane, and another brother David (not the David above who was their cousin), grew up in Cecil County, Maryland. It is said that their cousin, the infamous David, also grew up in Maryland, and it is assumed that this was in or near Cecil County, so the cousins no doubt would have known each other. Rebecca's Uncle James Bradford had moved to western Pennsylvania in the early 1780's, some of his adult children having already located there. His son, David Bradford, was admitted to the Washington County bar when he was 22 years old in 1782. Just one year later, this brilliant young laywer was apppointed Deputy Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, his aunt and uncle, Samuel and Sarah Bradford, had remained behind in Maryland. Their daughter Rebecca had grown and married William Miller in 1778. About four years later, William and Rebecca also moved out west to Fayette County, which adjoins Washington County, Pennsylvania, again only about 50 miles from their cousin David. At some point, Rebecca's brother William Bradford also moved to Washington County near his cousin David. William and David were obviously close in proximity, in familial ties, and apparently in friendship, and it was to William that David Bradford looked for help in carrying out the plan to rob the U.S. mail. Five years later, William would marry Margaret Parkinson, believed to be the daughter of Benjamin Parkinson, another one of the rebels. But at this time, as far as is known, William was 24 and unmarried.

The dark plan conceived, it was now just a matter of carrying it out. In the next post we will examine the deed itself.

(picture courtesy of www.bradfordhouse.org)

The Bradford Cousins and the Whiskey Rebellion - Part 1

A little known episode in American history, the Whiskey Rebellion, which took place in western Pennsylvania in the 1790's, is known as the Federal government's first real test of power, but it also revealed the mood of a frontier people who just a few years earlier had fought a war to free their young nation from what they considered harsh and unfair taxation by mother England. Also, many of these farmers were of Scots-Irish origin, and curtailing the production of their whiskey was not destined to be a popular notion.

According to Wiki: "The Whiskey Insurrection was a popular uprising that had its beginnings in the 1791, and culminated in an insurrection in 1794 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Monongahela Valley. During George Washington's presidency, the government decided to tax whiskey in order to pay off the national debt. This infuriated the citizenry and lead to the Whiskey Rebellion... The tax on whiskey was bitterly and fiercely opposed..on the frontier from the day it was passed. Western farmers considered it to be both unfair and discriminatory, since they had traditionally converted their excess grain into liquor. Since the nature of the tax affected those who produced the whiskey, but not the people who bought the whiskey, it directly affected many farmers. Many protest meetings were held, and a situation arose...From Pennsylvania to Georgia, the eastern counties engaged in a campaign of harassment of the federal tax collectors. 'Whiskey Boys' also made violent protests in Maryland, Virginia and North and South Carolina."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhiskeyRebellion)

Thus it was not only western Pennsylvania that was in the grips of dissent. However, by the summer of 1794 when tensions reached a fever pitch and civil protests turned into armed rebellion, it was in western Pennsylvania that the first shots were fired at the William Miller* homestead 10 miles south of Pittsburgh. General Neville had ordered a group of insurrectionists to stand back, then fired into the group, a bullet mortally wounding William's son, Oliver Miller. The locals considered this murder. "As word of the rebellion spread across the frontier, a whole series of loosely organized resistance measures were taken, including robbing the mail, stopping court proceedings, and the threat of assault on Pittsburgh. One group, disguised as women, assaulted a tax collector, cropped his hair, coated him with tar and feathers, and stole his horse." (ibid).

In the next post, we will examine the role of Rebecca Bradford Miller's brother and cousin in this intriguing, and even disturbing, story from American history.

[*research is continuing into whether or not this William Miller was a relative of our William Miller. This William's father, Oliver Miller Sr., is said to have immigrated to America from County Antrim in Northern Ireland in 1742, settling in Cecil County, Maryland]

Rebecca's Uncle James Bradford

County Down, Ireland

As we search for where Rebecca Bradford's father, Samuel Bradford, was from, a look at the records of extended family is proving helpful. In particular, information about Samuel's brother, James Bradford, sheds light on the origin of this family. Below are references to James [in bold], the first being an article about James' son (Rebecca's cousin), the infamous David Bradford of Whiskey Rebellion fame:

"David Bradford, son of James, of David, of Samuel, an emigrant who settled on the headwaters of the Elk, Cecil County, Maryland (this descent to David is not positive, but reported only), m. Elizabeth Porter. His [David's] father, James Bradford, removed to Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1773, with his wife, Ann Hamilton, where were b. James, David, Mary m. James Allison, and another daughter who married John McDowell. David Bradford d. in Louisiana. His wife Elizabeth d. September 9, 1831." (from William Egle's Notes and Queries of Pennsylvania, 1700s to 1800s, published 1894-1896).

Information about James' daughter [and Rebecca's cousin], Mary Bradford Allison (see above), appears in the following website, and seems to throw a slightly different light on the immigration issue. At:

http://www.saskatelwebsite.net/deham/allisonfamily.htm we read: "Mary Bradford, born about 1748 in Ireland, daughter of James Bradford and a sister to David Bradford, who is well known in connection with the Whiskey Insurrection of 1791. Mary immigrated with her family from Ireland to Cecil Co, Maryland, later moving to Washington Co, Pennsylvania. She is buried in Chartiers Hill Presbyterian cemetery near Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania." Other records indicate that another Bradford's in-law was from County Down in Northern Ireland. These groups bound by marriage tended to travel together, or at least meet up in the new country, another point in favor of the Bradfords being of Scots-Irish origin.

In analyzing the two references above, the second one about Mary Bradford suggests that her father, James, immigrated from Ireland as a married adult with his wife and children (including Mary). Did his brother, Samuel [Rebecca's father] come over at the same time? It is unknown. However, another record indicates that James lived in Elizabethtown, New Jersey for awhile, where his daughter, Agnes, married James McDowell (a young man who had also immigrated from Northern Ireland). Again, it is unknown if brother Samuel ever lived in New Jersey.

The first reference above, however, indicates that it was James' and Samuel's father, grandfather or great grandfather who was the immigrant ancestor [as a side note, admittedly, "the descent to David is not positive, but reported only"...more research is obviously needed here!]. Perhaps this does not conflict with the other information about James coming over as a married adult, in that several generations could have immigrated to America at the same time.

As ever, we are left with more questions than answers, but I am certain that Rebecca's father, Samuel Bradford, was of Scots-Irish origin, he or his ancestors having immigrated from beautiful Northern Ireland.

(picture above of County Down from: freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com)